I didn't know it would be this difficult
by cleopatra1111
Summary: This is a companion to my other story - Earth of the Gods. It involves HongIce. Michael is not human, and he knows that. People like him don't fall for humans, that's just the way they are. But who is this white haired stranger that is breaking all the rules that life has ever set for him?


**OMG, WHAT HAVE I DONE. I've started another story that's what. But so much love for HongIce, and so much new love for Avengers.  
Oh yeah, a little crossover here with Avengers. If you don't know what Avengers are, then I'm sorry. That's not going to be much help, is it.**

**I own nothing, thank god, otherwise the Earth would be dead. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. :)**

**This is like a mini-companion to my other story - Earth of the Gods. It sort of connects with how the story is set... sort of...**

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I didn't realize that it would be quite as hard as it was.

You know that feeling you sometimes get, when you briefly question as to why your existence in this world is useful? Well, that's basically the constant nagging in the back of my head. What? Don't judge me! I'm not emo, it's just that I'm pretty much indefinitely immortal.

Yeah, that's right, you guessed it. I'm not human. But I am a high school student, in England. Why don't I start this from the beginning? My name is Li Xiao, (or Michael for those who refuse to even try to say my real name), and my physical age is 16. My life is pretty much pointless sometimes.

The first day of Year 12 was quite disastrous. I was ecstatic to finally be away from my 'older brother' Arthur for the first time in two months. This was my first time in private school as well; I'd gained a Science scholarship from Eton, and boy was Arthur proud. I still didn't talk to him. After all, I'd made it my personal goal to not say a word to him when he took me away from me real older brother.

Anyway, I'm getting away from the point. On the induction day, our tutors showed my class around the school. Unfortunately, I got a little side-tracked at the Science blocks. That loosely translates as, "I found some pure solutions along with flammable material". I was let off on the terms of first day disorientation, but I personally had thought that the labs were much more colourful after I had left.

This is also where I had met my best friend; Tony Stark. He had been in the same building and built a little mechanical rat that he let off in the bathrooms. What can I say, he loves to build things, and I'm Asian. How could we not get along? There was outrage, and then there was hilarity. But enough about that; what I meant to say, was that this little outburst had left me with a small but fierce reputation. I didn't particularly like it.

The first few months had gone by fairly slowly, but with my friend, the super genius, it wasn't too bad. And so here the story starts with just a week before Christmas holiday.

"Mike! I need like two more days to finish my project, but you have to come with me to see this movie! The trailer was awesome!"

"Dude, don't beg. I know I'm great, but I'll let you take me."

"Don't flatter yourself Mikey."

I pouted, "You know I hate it when you call me that."

He smirked, "Which is why I do anyway."

The bell rung, signalling that school had ended and Tony grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. We took the bus to the cinema, which I also hate. Did I mention? I hate pretty much everything in England. Oh yeah, and I'm actually from Hong Kong. Well, I _am_ Hong Kong. Anyway, we headed off to see this 'mystery' movie, and that was that. If not only for the familiar faces we saw at the lobby. It was the popular people.

I know what you're thinking, popular is the boys with awesome clothes, and good looks. Those who smoke and have 5 different older girlfriends. But no, the popular people at our school just happened to be none of those things. Well, at least not the 'out there' parts. There were about six of them, who had great humour and were relatively nice to everyone; yeah, they were the popular people. Also, they were the smartest people in our Year without scholarships like Tony and I.

They were all nice to me, but I knew that they thought I was short-tempered and had little emotions. Everyone did. There were two members, however, that were much too polite to show this. There was Steve Rogers, the mild-mannered and no-bully type of guy. Unfortunately, he was also the victim of Tony's many pranks. For some reason, Tony loved to make fun of him a lot. Possibly because he got such hilarious responses out of him.

And then there was Emil Bondevik, the Icelander, who seemed to have skin made of niceness. He was always apologising to things that weren't his fault, and scuttling away from bad things.

On one hand, I wanted to stay away from him, because I felt like I would be getting in the way of his life. But on the other hand, I was curious as to why he seemed so sheltered. And also his weird obsession with Coke Cola…

Anyways, Tony and I decided that we didn't want to distract ourselves with petty small talk, so we just headed to the ticket queue at the very end. We were asking for our tickets from a very nervous looking cashier.

"Two t-tickets? Y-yes, that's b-b-be £50, p-please." Our jaws dropped off our faces.

"£50? You've got to be kidding me!" I pouted in response. Tony obviously thought the same.

"Come on dude, we'll pay the original price. Not this rip-off."

The cashier took a huge gulp of air before jumping slightly. He repeated his ridiculous request. Suddenly, before we could say anything, a huge man jumped up from behind the secluded counter. He was holding a gun. Which he was pointing at me.

"I've had enough of this bullshit! Give me the freaking money!" He basically yelled at me. I don't know what came over me, but I was tired and bored and aching to do something interesting before we broke up from school. I don't know why my idea of 'fun' was exactly right though….

"No! I refuse to give you anything! You won't shoot me."

A panicked look crossed his face before being replaced with pure rage.

"Oh, I won't?" He raised his gun and fired.

Pain shot through my right shoulder and I fell to the floor. Tony quickly came to my side, and I could just see the man escaping through the corner of my eyes.

"Dude, are you ok?" Of course. The pain wouldn't last for long. I guess I would have to lie to Tony about this, because the wound would heal in a couple of minutes. That was easy.

But then came the hard part. Apparently, our little ordeal had gathered the cinema halls full attention; everyone was panicking and scurrying around, the staff were all flying to my side. Everything that I hated; the attention. Oh God, and the populars were approaching, something that I really didn't need.

I stood up and brushed the dust off of my clothes, and said my 'I'm fine's. I saw Steve cast a sympathetic smile to Tony; I don't get how he can be so polite to Tony after all he puts him through.

But as they left, one remained. Emil, for some reason, had stayed. Actually, he was eyeing me suspiciously, which I really didn't like. For some reason, I really wanted him to smile, I'm sure he would look great when he's smiling. Wait… why was I thinking like that? Anyway, he asked me the routine question, and I responded with the affirmative. He quickly glanced at my shoulder, and couldn't do much to hide that look of utter confusion.

"I'm fine. Really. But thanks for asking, Emil." I upturned my lips ever so slightly, but it felt awkward. I don't really smile that much, never had a reason to. But now, when I wanted that feeling to reach someone, it just wasn't reaching. My chest hurt a little after he left.

There was just something not right about today.

* * *

"Class, I'm setting you a project to do over the winter break." I heard the class groan audibly.

"No, don't be upset! It's a fun project, and you're going to do it in partners!" I eyed Tony, who looked down at his lap and twiddled his lap. He was tense for some reason; I didn't really get it. If he has a problem, he'll joke about it with me, and then laugh at the idiots who caused the dilemma, or even himself. He's never been this worried before.

Anyway, the teacher continued, "I'll tell you your partner, and then you'll receive a piece of paper with your project theme. Everyone will get a different one, so they can all prepare a presentation about it to give to the rest of the class when we get back. This is counted as 25% of your end of year grades, so good luck!"

I mentally face-palmed. I was looking forward to doing nothing with Tony and away from my house for the two weeks. According to Arthur, countries aren't allowed to go to other countries for vacation. Something to do with the last meeting they had, about causing too much ruckus for no reason.

So anyway, I was upset over this project because it meant that I would probably have to spend time around Arthur.

"Tony and Steve, come pick something from the pile." I had zoned out, oops. So Tony was with Steve? This wouldn't go well. I saw Steve crack a smile, although I'm not sure if it was because it was so ironic, or because he was just a good sport. Anyway, Tony had turned red. I 'lolled' and reminded myself to tease him about that later.

"Michael and Emil." Oh no, not him. But why was I sad? I like the guy, so why was this so weird? We get along well enough, although I haven't spoken to him much. But why were my palms sweating? Did I subconsciously hate him or something?

I stood up to get my paper, and looked at the white haired boy as he stood up with me. His hair was so white, and silky. I wondered if it was soft… Why did that randomly appear in my mind? Hmm, strange.

I let him pick a piece of paper, and we went off into a corner to discuss the project. We looked at the paper.

**History project 5**

**You will be studying Scandinavia. Your presentation should be 8-10 mins, and you should discuss key events that happened in the past. Include:**

**The Viking age**

**Unions/Wars**

**Relations with other countries**

**Internationality**

"Shit, I know nothing about Scandinavia." I looked at my companion, to see a shadow of a smile cross his face. I blinked. "Hey, you're from Iceland, right?"

Emil scratched at his trousers. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I know everything about Scandinavia." He looked at me as he said that, quite matter-of-factly. I could see his eyes glint with a touch of humour, as if we weren't having a conversation about school projects.

His eyes. As I stared into them, I saw them cloudy with a slight shade of lavender; my favourite colour. Who even had purple eyes? That was so weird. But they were so gentle and sweet.

He coughed awkwardly and I realized that I'd been staring at his eyes. What am I? Some freak who stares into people's eyes? That was so awkward.

"So, should we meet up sometime in the holidays to start? Are you free at all?" Emil asked me. Oh sure, as if I was going anywhere.

"No, I live with my older brother. He doesn't like leaving England. What a loser, this place sucks."

Emil rolled his eyes playfully, "Tell me about it." He chuckled lightly, like a tinkling bell. "Then why don't we do something to make it a bit more interesting, like watch a movie about Scandinavia or something, and like call it research or something."

"Totally agree. Well, Tony was taking me to see Troll Hunters when that maniac shot at me. I hear it's Norwegian, want to go see?" Oh dear God, please say yes.

"Sure." I did a little 'woohoo' in my head and in reality simply nodded nonchalantly. I needed to keep my reputation as the cool guy, not some lamo who's happy he's got a social life. Because I do have a social life. Why the hell was I so happy then? Oh my life is strange…

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**Oh dear God, Fanfiction is trying to correct my English spelling. Damn you FF! I like to spell it "coloUr"!**

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